David Ball

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David James Ball (born 3 May 1959, Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English producer and electronic musician, who has played in bands such as Soft Cell and The Grid, and collaborated with other producers including Ingo Vauk and Chris Braide. He is usually referred to as Dave Ball on record sleeves.

Career

As an art student at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University), Ball experimented with electronic sounds and synthesizers, a burgeoning technology at the time which was just beginning to gain acceptance with artists such as Kraftwerk and The Human League. He met fellow student Marc Almond, who, taken with Ball's avant-garde soundscapes, asked him to help in developing music to complement Almond's performance art pieces. The two recorded a four track EP, funded by Ball, entitled Mutant Moments, and were soon signed to the small label, Some Bizarre Records. Working alongside Almond, who by this time had taken on the role of lead singer and lyricist at Ball's suggestion, the band achieved success with their 1981 cover version of Gloria Jones's "Tainted Love".

Soft Cell remained major pop stars in the UK for a couple of years, releasing a string of singles. Two more albums, arranged and scored by Ball, were released to critical success. The duo went on their separate ways to pursue solo projects in 1983, just before the release of their third album, This Last Night in Sodom.

Ball then went on to release a solo album entitled In Strict Tempo, featuring Gavin Friday of The Virgin Prunes, and Genesis P Orridge of Throbbing Gristle. He then went on to produce electronic dance music records alongside Ingo Vauk and collaborator Richard Norris. Ball eventually teamed with Norris to form the techno group The Grid, which enjoyed success with the million selling hit "Swamp Thing". The Grid also remixed many acts including Brian Eno, Erasure, Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Happy Mondays, Carter USM, David Sylvian and Robert Fripp, Pet Shop Boys, Boy George and Sophie B Hawkins. Ball and Vauk also produced "The SAS and the Glam That Goes With It" by Earl Brutus, and "London Broil" by Doris Alloy.

In 1991 Soft Cell reunited for three songs on the album Tenement Symphony, under the name of 'Marc Almond Feat. The Grid'. Soft Cell reformed in 2002 and released a new album, Cruelty Without Beauty, which spawned the UK #39 single "The Night".

Ball continued to write, remix and produce acts such as B-52s, Depeche Mode, Man Parrish, Client, Soft Cell, Jackie Chan and Andy Smith of Portishead and Misty Woods of JuJu Babies.

The Grid reformed and released a single, "Put Your Hands Together" (2007) with mixes by Paul Jackson, MHC and Kriss Darang. The Grid's first album in 10 years, Doppelgänger, was released in March 2008 to critical acclaim on the Some Bizzare label and they performed at Glastonbury, Glade and Brighton Festival's in the 2008, as well as at the Scala in London's Kings Cross with support from Phil Hartnoll of Orbital and Alex Paterson of The Orb.

Both Dave Ball and The Grid are managed by the commercial management company Angel Artists who also represented Phil Hartnoll.